The Do’s and Don’ts of Sending Pictures to Journalists

How Journalists Really Want Pictures Sent in a Press Release

Steph Spyro is the founder of Off the Record

Pictures in a press release can be just as important as the words themselves. I’ve seen brilliant stories with all the ingredients for a double-page spread end up squeezed onto a single page because the accompanying images weren’t strong enough. I wrote about it on LinkedIn a few weeks ago.

Sometimes a media outlet will send its own photographer but that’s far from guaranteed. If you’re organising a stunt, campaign or overseas story, it’s vital to invest in a good photographer who can capture sharp, high-quality images that editors will want to use.

We’re planning to do a whole edition soon on what makes a great media picture, so I’ll save the deeper dive on that for another day. For now, this is all about how to properly sell the photos you already have in a press release… complete with real examples from my inbox. I’ll also cover the best formats for sending images to journalists and picture desks. In other words: I’m giving away all the trade secrets!

I’ll do a separate edition on video soon too, because that’s becoming increasingly important to modern newsroom storytelling. So stay tuned because there’s plenty more to come.

But for now… back to pictures!

The easier you make a journalist’s life, the better your chances of coverage. If we have to request access, hunt for captions or chase credits then you’re already creating friction.

Great pictures won’t rescue a weak story but weak pictures can absolutely hold back a great one.

Should you refer to the pictures at the top of your email?

This is something I’ve often been asked in the last few months and the answer is ABSOLUTELY YES! If you have fantastic images, shout about it! I work for a tabloid so pictures are especially important to my outlet but they also matter to broadsheet titles and online-only publications too. Broadcasters will like anything visual too but are likely to be more interested in moving pictures.

I would say it’s worth mentioning great images high up in an email pitch. Second to fourth paragraph would be absolutely fine. No need to include it in the very top sentence of a pitch.

Example 1: This organisation put this in the fourth paragraph of an email pitch. It would have been ideal to link to the images where they’re referenced too.

Example 2: Another organisation highlighted this sentence in yellow - although admittedly this sentence was in the 11th paragraph so a tad bit too low down I think.

Example 3: This charity opted to use bullet points fairly high up in a pitch to mention videos and pictures to link to their new campaign

These all work well because they were mostly quite high up in a press release. The yellow highlighter, bullet points or bold formatting were used to shout about the accompanying attachments. If a journalist is short on time and skimming a release, all of this can be incredibly helpful.

What format should you send images in?

Now, let’s get into the actual format that reporters like to receive images in. WeTransfer? Dropbox? PDFs?